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December 31, 2013
Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu
Chiang Mai, Muay Thai

Four Beautiful Photos by Emanuele Siracusa – #fight66 [pics]

Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu vs Nong Em Tor Vitaya (Emanuele 2)

Emanuele contacted me on Facebook not long before my last fight and asked about photography opportunities at Loi Kroh. I told him that it was very casual there, and looked forward to meeting him. My husband and I took a look at his website thesiracusas.com and realized what a spectacular travel and street photographer he is. He is in Chiang Mai for the next few months with his wife and child (who I haven’t met yet), and I look forward to what else he might shoot. But these 4 photos from my last fight vs. Nong Em are beautiful. The fight video and blog post should be in shortly.

You can find his facebook page here to keep on top of what he’s shooting.

Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu vs Nong Em Tor Vitaya (Emanuele 3)

Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu vs Nong Em Tor Vitaya (Emanuele 2)

Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu vs Nong Em Tor Vitaya (Emanuele 1)

Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu vs Nong Em Tor Vitaya (Emanuele 4)

 

As a bonus look at this extraordinary photo of monks celebrating Loi Krathong at Wat Phan Tao in Chiang Mai, from his website:

Wat Pahn Tao - Loy Krathong

 

 

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Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

The Author Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

A 103 lb. (46 kg) female Muay Thai fighter. Originally I trained under Kumron Vaitayanon (Master K) and Kaensak sor. Ploenjit in New Jersey. I then moved to Thailand to train and fight full time in April of 2012, devoting myself to fighting 100 Thai fights, as well as blogging full time. Having surpassed 100 fights in 3 years here, my new goal is to fight an impossible 200 times in Thailand, as much as I possibly can, and to continue to write my experience.

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Sarah Conner - Sacrifice - Body Muay Thai

Sarah Conner & My Egg Donation: The “Sacrifice” of Body For Muay Thai

In the world of athletics and motivational memes, the word “sacrifice” gets thrown around a lot.  All the things that one must sacrifice in the name of greatness, the hardships of waking up to train, missing out on nights of drinking with friends… whatever.  I know people use this word without truly dissecting the concept, it’s just part of sport-speak.  But I don’t use this word because it means a lot to me. When I think of the word “sacrifice” I think of giving up something of immense value – sacrifice is painful, not unfortunate or just hard.  Abraham willing

The Expense of Competition - Saya Ito, Phetjee Jaa and Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu

The Expense of Competition – Training with Former Opponent Saya Ito

above: Saya Ito, me and Phetjee Jaa I’m standing outside the ring in the late evening, maybe around 7:30 PM, watching Japanese world champion Saya Ito crawl under the bottom rope to stand next to Phetjee Jaa.  I’ve got stitches in my head, so I’m not allowed to clinch yet but I’m staying to watch.  Saya has been training at the O. Meekhun Gym for a couple weeks now. It’s her second time at the gym since I’ve been training here and she’s gearing up for a WPMF title fight in Japan on April 5th (today!).  She’s not good at

Kaitlin Young Interview - Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu-001

Kaitlin Young Left MMA for Love of Muay Thai – Interview, Bangkok

We pulled the car around a corner in a maze of suburban small streets and panned the lane in an attempt to locate the Dejrat Gym – this is an out-of-the-way gym which we could only find with GPS and a map location (below). At the far end of the street there was a pile of colorful equipment laid out in the driveway in order to dry it in the sun – a sure sign of a gym if I’ve ever seen one. So we park the car and I get out to greet the three older men who are

Thai Clinch - Lanna Muay Thai - black and white

The Male Nature of Thai Clich – Play, Dramatization, and Domination

The Inherent Nature of Thai Clinch This video was shot about 25-30 minutes into a clinching session at the tail end of afternoon training.  Initially, everyone jumped in to help Big with his clinch because he has some fights coming up, but by the time we get to this video everyone is working with “Godzilla,” who is significantly bigger than all the other boys and Den.  They’re doing a “round robin” type drill with “last man standing” rules, so that two men are clinching and whoever gets thrown is “out” and whoever is still standing is still in, so the

Muay Thai Luck in Thailand - Talking with Angie

Muay Thai Luck in Thailand | Talking With Angie

Angie’s beverage shop is on the side of a road that cuts between the very busy Thepprasit and equally busy Pattaya Tai roads. There are constantly motorbikes and cars wizzing past, occasionally pulling to the side to shout a drink order to Angie and then jet off somewhere for a minute before returning to pick up. Today it’s oddly quiet and tons of shops around Pattaya are closed, so the traffic is minimal and Angie is sitting with her back to the street. I’m facing her, seeing the slowness of the traffic and giving her a nod every now and

Nak-Muay-Nak-Leng-Monks

Thai Masculinity: Postioning Nak Muay Between Monkhood and Nak Leng – Peter Vail

Academic author Peter Vail is one of the few serious scholarly writers who have taken on Muay Thai as a field of study. You can find his articles in my Academic Resources post. Besides a general dearth of articles on Muay Thai in English, there is the added problem that they are very hard to find for the average sincere reader who wants to learn more about Muay Thai and Thai culture. Peter Vail’s PhD dissertation is perhaps most significant example of an important work that is largely hidden from western Martial Art readers’ eyes. Academics aren’t interested in Muay

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